1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of flocking and in particular to an improved flocking tray system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art of flocking, it is known to provide an adhesive coating of a predetermined design to a substrate such as a garment, textile, card, etc. such as by screen printing to cover the adhesive with flock, and then to heat the substrate to cure the adhesive. The flock, of course, will adhere only to the adhesive coated portion of the substrate and after all excess flock is removed and the adhesive cured, the desired design on the garment will be "flocked" or fuzzy in both appearance and texture. The term "flock" as known in the prior art refers usually to a very short, natural or synthetic fiber such as may be used in coating greeting cards, garments or the like, such as fibers of rayon, nylon, polyester or pulp. It is known to apply flocking material to an adhesive coated surface in a variety of ways including manually depositing fibers over the entire surface and shaking off the excess, and more recently by the use of electrostatic devices which provide the advantage that the fibers are driven into the surface substantially on end with each fiber standing up. This gives a deeper penetration into the adhesive and a more textured and more uniform coating. It is well-known in the prior art to apply flocking to garments such as T-shirts, sweat shirts and the like, however, the overall operation requires a large amount of operator time and hand work. In many of the conventional systems, a motor and cam or lever action system is utilized, in which systems binding and other problems occur such as contamination of the inside of the cabinet with flock.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved flock tray system which overcomes or minimizes some of the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, such as binding of the moving tray and contamination of the inside of the cabinet with flock.